While UB is a nice enough city, to understand what Mongolia is all about, you really need to move out of the city. A lot of tours and operators have everything from day tours to much longer horseback or hiking trails. While N and I generally try to refrain from paid tours, the wilderness in Mongolia can be hard to explore by oneself, so we had to go with a tour operator. In the end, we were deciding between a 90$ per person per day operator, and a 99$ per person per day operator (both extremely expensive in my opinion – shouldn’t being outdoors just be free???). We bit the bullet and went with the slightly more expensive option as they promised MORE WILDERNESS than the other operator.
We had no idea what the camping would be like, and were fully prepared not to shower at all and use a hole in the ground as a bathroom, But when we reached Jalman Meadows, it was nothing like that! We’d inadvertently stumbled onto ‘glamping’!
Our camp! About 10-15 gers in total, in the middle of the glorious Mongolian steppes!
Fully powered by solar energy
Jalman is in a protected quadrant of the Terelj National Reserve, which means (from what I understand) the number of people allowed into the area is limited, and permits are required. The camp itself was really nice, it was was entirely self contained, with a restaurant ger, a library ger, a shop (!), and more. The food was excellent, and it was a four-course meal every time (salad, soup, and main, and desert). They were also very good about catering for people’s dietary requirements and allergies. Activities could be arranged on site, so we spent time over the next three days hiking, horse riding, rafting, star gazing, and drinking Tiger beer (!). Definitely one of the most remote places we’d been to in a long while, and a refreshing change from the usual bustle.
Our beautiful ger for 3 days
Heating system within the ger – very effective at getting the ger nice and toasty
The valley was beautiful, with wild flowers in bloom and semi-wild horses that were just chillin, semi-wildly. Not much else to say really, but just leave you with some pictures.
Oh and there was no wifi or phone reception, so we were completely off the grid. They did, however, have a satellite phone on the premises, which one of the guests (an investment banker) made use of, claiming he had to make an emergency call (“hey analysts, did you format the margins on the pitchbook correctly? I wanted blue not red!”)
In short, this place was magnificent! Highly, highly recommended (the tour operator we booked with was Nomadic Journeys).
wild horses chillin
approach with caution
the camp in the morning mist
our transport across bumpy ‘roads’
the yak-cart transporting our kayaks upstream. (but first, let me have a drink!)
the tuul river
just horsin’ around
view from the top of a hill, that’s our camp in the distance!
solar lights marking out the footpath in the camp
a poor attempt at capturing the milky way
On the way back to UB, we also passed the Genghis Khan Equestrian statue, which is a massive 40m tall statue. You can also take a lift to the top for a view.
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